Vahl exhaled, letting the tension drain from him. He had nearly died, but quick reflexes and an unflinching resolve had seen him through.

  The man crawled to the spell orb on the ground and extended his hand.

  "Wait, a second!"

  Vahl noticed a small blue tear on his left hand. Perhaps he couldn't feel it due to the adrenaline or because the wound was rather small. In the dreamworld, wounds do not persist. That's because your real body is never truly present here. Instead, you inhabit an aetheric body. A sort of projection. Damage sustained by the aetheric body only partially translates to damage sustained in real life.

  One could lose a limb inside the dreamworld, and the aetheric body would be restored within hours with sheer regeneration.

  Vahl curiously observed the cerulean blue sparks that rapidly multiplied in the process of closing the wound.

  He grasped the spell orb and examined it closely. It didn't manifest any of the malicious aura that the statue had given off previously. Instead, it glinted with a soft, fiery glow.

  Vahl did not recognize the spell from the look of the orb. Only arcanists of the watchtower archetype have the ability to appraise items from the dreamworld. Everybody else has to use trial and error or a brochure.

  "Regardless, I can't use spells until I complete the first trial because the first trial is how one acquires an archetype," Vahl reminded himself.

  And so Vahl pushed forward after a short break. He had to find the exit, or he would be doomed to roaming these ghastly corridors forever. The only good news so far was that Vahl did not find any of his etchings, which meant that he was not traveling in circles.

  After what seemed like forever, Vahl noticed a subtle orange glow in the distance. A striking change from the monotonous bone white and green flame. He paced towards the end of the hallway, taking stock of the change in the environment.

  The corridor suddenly opened into a vast gallery. The walls were stacked with pale, shaved bone bricks, and black-and-white marble pillars rose like silent sentinels. The bleached walls were unnervingly smooth now, and the floor, once uneven, was now polished with patterns of swirling circles. Between the pillars hung eerie pastel paintings with discordantly lively colors. They seemed to depict people in all sorts of poses and situations, albeit their faces were blurred as if the artist forgot to add definition.

  Vahl’s steps reverberated in the grand hall. He stepped forward and stopped in front of the golden statue in the middle of the room. The statue was positioned at the center of the dome ceiling, shining a bright light in all directions. It was the origin of the warm glow he saw earlier. The figure depicted was a tall man in ornamental knight armor, and as Vahl’s eyes traveled upwards towards the top, he noticed that the figure was missing its head, just like the creepy angel Vahl had destroyed a while ago.

  He crouched to observe the foundation the statue was standing on. It was a rough gray slab with a simple inscription: “To immortalise the great deeds of Lhav the…”

  Vahl paused where the original inscription was damaged. It appeared like someone had crossed out the word “great” and replaced it with the word “traitor”.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  A sigh broke Vahl’s focus, and he immediately took a step back.

  “Where did that sound come from?” Vahl mumbled.

  His eyes darted all around the gallery. The shiny marble pillars reflected the warm glow of the golden centerpiece. In their shade hid the eerie pastel paintings. Vahl approached one that depicted a woman holding a silver goblet. She was standing in a beauty salon, posing pretentiously with her blue dress. The liquid inside the goblet was purplish, perhaps wine. But what was most outstanding was the fact that the liquid appeared to be swirling as if someone had just tasted it.

  “Could it have been an optical illusion?” Vahl wondered.

  Well, regardless of whether it was just his eyes playing tricks or a special painting technique, Vahl couldn’t afford to risk his life due to ignorance.

  He touched the frame of the painting with the greenfire lantern, and the painting immediately burst into flames.

  A shrill wail pierced the calm ambience when the fire reached the woman confined in the painting. She jumped and attempted to escape, but the rapidly spreading green embers consumed the entire art piece.

  Vahl dashed down the hall while setting fire to all the paintings, and soon the gallery was filled with awful screams. The figures in the paintings tried to hide behind objects or escape into the background, but eventually, the flames left only a charred frame behind.

  Vahl waited for a while, but no reward was given for this act. He smashed apart a few of the smouldering frames, and yet nothing happened. Perhaps the paintings were truly harmless, or maybe they were just a single body part of a massive nightmare creature.

  With no clue as to how he should continue, Vahl simply stuck to his algorithm from before and followed the right wall, leaving the gallery.

  He walked further down the corridor until he could no longer see the warm glow coming from the library. He sat down and immersed himself in thought.

  “Should I continue on this path? So far, I hadn’t come across even a single clue. I need to locate the exit, but there are hundreds of intersections, and I have been simply sticking to the right wall since the beginning.”

  Vahl paused when he suddenly noticed something. The Wall opposite him was greenish.

  “Is this moss?”

  Vahl inspected the wall further. The green patch seemed out of place in a catacomb that seemed to extend infinitely with miles of white tunnels adorned with greenflame torches.

  “Suspicious!”

  Tearing down the wall was a lot easier than killing the stone angel. The bones were simply stacked upon each other, and all Vahl had to do was smash them apart and tear them off. Eventually, a big enough hole was made for a human to pass through. A pleasant grassy smell filled his nostrils. The man pushed the lantern into the hole to get a sense of the depth. The hidden room seemed barely a few paces long. It was filled with moss, small white flowers that Vahl didn’t recognise, and many dark green vines that coiled around the ribcages and skulls like an abandoned beanstalk. At its center was a small green pearl embedded in the wall. It shone with a weak green light, distinct from the pale ghostfire of Vahl’s lantern.

  Vahl slowly approached the orb while avoiding the numerous thorny vines. Then he grabbed the pearl and pulled it out of the wall in a single powerful motion.

  The greenery surrounding him immediately lost its luster and disappeared in a few seconds. Vahl felt relieved upon realising that there was no enemy or challenge to be wary of. He had just acquired a spell orb for free.

  “Even though I don’t know what it does, this is a great boon and a sign of great fortune. Perhaps I am close to the exit.”

  With a smile on his face, Vahl continued his journey. Going right at an intersection and then proceeding to go right again. Now he was being far more perceptive of the subtle hues that coloured the boneyard.

  He rounded the corner without a thought. Then his cheer died, his eyes widening in horror. A grotesque monster stood before him. And it had already noticed him.